The present invention relates generally to anchors, and more particularly, to environmentally safe anchor assemblies for anchoring floating objects that prevent tangling of the anchored floating objects with each other or with aquatic plants.
The background information discussed below is presented to better illustrate the novelty and usefulness of the present invention. This background information is not admitted prior art.
It is common for hunters when hunting water fowl such as ducks and geese to place decoys on the water to encourage ducks and geese flying overhead to land. The two major classes of ducks hunted are puddle ducks and diving ducks. Puddle ducks, also referred to as dipping, surface-feeding, pond, river, or freshwater ducks are physically and behaviorally different from diving ducks. Physically, puddle ducks differ from diving ducks, in that puddle ducks have unlobed hind feet that are also smaller than the hind feet of diving ducks. This accounts for the fact that puddle ducks rarely dive for their food and, therefore, are most often found feeding in shallow water. Puddle ducks, such as mallards, black ducks, mottled ducks, Mexican ducks, pintails, gadwalls, American wigeons, shovelers, wood ducks, green-winged teal, blue-winged teal, cinnamon teal, fulvous tree duck, black-bellied tree ducks, and American coots, mainly feed on water plants that they obtain by tipping tail-end up in shallow water. In addition to eating water plants, puddle ducks often forage near shore for seeds and insects.
A typical puddle duck decoy mimics the shape and color of shallow water ducks and frequently is equipped with a weighted keel extending lengthwise from along the decoy's bottom centerline to help maintain the stability of the decoy as it floats on the shallow surface part of a lake, stream, or marsh pond. In order for the decoys to be kept in a desired position, the decoys must be attached to an anchor weight that will anchor the decoy on the bottom of the lake, stream, or marsh pond. The weight helps to keep the decoy relatively stationary against the effects of wind or water movement that may be caused by changes in the tide level or by a river current. In currently available decoys and anchors, whenever the decoy has a keel, one end of a length of flexible line is tied to a tying aperture in the keel and the other end of the flexible line is attached to the anchor weight.